It is difficult to imagine a more depraved, brutal and cowardly act than bombing refugee families in their tents, but I think we now all understand there is no moral depth which the terrorist entity that is Israel will not plumb.
I think you know I have been regularly crying hot tears over the slaughter of innocents and the complicity of the western states. I hope that you will understand it is not from indifference to the unspeakable suffering, that I respond with a disquisition on grammar.
There was an extraordinary unanimity across the entire mainstream media in giving the same misrepresentation of the recent ICJ Order to Israel to stop operations in Gaza.
How does it happen that both media and political class unite in pumping out the same misinterpretation of a document, when that interpretation is not only wrong but impossible?
We are told that the ICJ did not unambiguously order Israel to stop its operations in Rafah, but left “wiggle room” for Israel to conduct operations in a surgical manner without endangering civilians.
The propaganda line goes that Israel was only ordered to halt its offensive insofar as it may cause conditions that could endanger the Palestinian group as a whole.
But what the court said is this:
Israel must immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
The Zionist spin is that the final clause qualifies the first clause and thus the offensive need only be stopped if it “inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
The argument then runs that an offensive in Rafah allegedly designed not to do this may go ahead. [I explain the Zionist spin, leaving aside for the moment that it is plain to the entire world that Israel is anyway inflicting exactly those conditions of life on the Palestinians.]
But that is a grammatically impossible interpretation.
I do accept that the second comma means that the final clause does also apply to the first statement and not just the “any other action” clause, although that is arguably ambiguous.
But even accepting that, if we remove the middle clause and apply the final clause only to the “offensive”, we still get this:
Israel must immediately halt its military offensive… which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
The order to stop the offensive is peremptory. There is no way to parse the entire sentence which does not give a direct order to “immediately halt its military offensive.”
Let me give a precise analogy.
“Stop playing football in the house, you may break the Ming vase”
CANNOT mean
“Carry on playing football, you might not break the Ming vase.”
I might take time to note the position of the British Labour Party, which is claiming it supports the International Court of Justice, but on the basis of the deliberate misinterpretation of its rulings. Keir Starmer has still at time of writing not condemned last night’s massacre in Rafah.
This is a turning point in history. The mask has been pulled away from the West and the pretence of support for international law has almost entirely been abandoned. It is fascinating to witness the determined efforts of the media and politicians to keep events in Gaza out of the election campaign.
As both major parties support continued arms sales and military support to Israel, and in the words of Keir Starmer support Israel “unequivocally”, it is unsurprising they wish the genocide happening now to be ignored in the campaign.
We have to make sure that does not happen.
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If the goal is to make Gaza uninhabitable, why not?
I get the impression that the goal is to drive the Palestinians out of Gaza so that Israeli settlers can move in.
Pears, I saw something, a real estate brochure advertising beach plots in Gaza.
I think the brochure was from Canada
The arrogance of these people is breathtaking.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68650815
This is an option, however, the cleaning efforts could be too costly. Also, the Israeli practice of pumping sea water into the tunnels speaks against this.
“Knesset to hold preliminary vote designating UNRWA a terror organization”
I haven´t been reading the Jerusalem Post – judging by this one article that’s a bunch of sick people publishing that outlet.
The following report is about the Knesset discussing a bill that would declare UNRWA a terrorist organisation – (hear, hear, their PR-section seems to have come up with some brilliant new ideas):
https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-803734
https://archive.is/RP7PZ
and the Post has this cool statement to share:
“(…)(UNRWA) (…) main relief service provider for 5.9 mio. Palestinian refugees in the Middle East (…) provides services for Palestinians in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan as well as for 1,476,706 refugees in Gaza and another 871,537 in the West Bank (…)”
however
“(…)Only those latter 2.34 million Palestinians would be impacted by the Knesset vote.(…)”.
Well I am relieved to hear this, Dear Post. But the best thing follows – the article expands on UNRWA ties with Hamas and its complicity in the Oct. 7th attacks.
I suggest reading the entire item – it´s not long – but to highlight one lie:
Israel Beytenu MK Yulia Malinovksy, who introduced the bill claims: “(…) “To make matters worse, many countries, including the US, Germany, Canada, Australia, Italy, Great Britain, Finland and Romania have announced their decision to stop funding UNRWA,”(…)”
German media didn´t really report it, but this decision was reversed. The same is true, as far as I know for all the other states.
And further quoting her:
“(…)“Without a shadow of a doubt, the UNRWA agency proved in the October 7 massacre that it is a terrorist organization that it is no different from the terrorist organization Hamas,” she stressed.(…)”
The Post doesn´t contradict and correct her statements a single time. Of course the UN probe into this matter, confirming Abu Ghraib style torture by IDF against UNRWA employees, has never taken place.
This is what a sick, distorted society looks like. Hava nagilah, you too, assholes.
I see, from a photo at the BBC, that Sunak wears a thin red string on his wrist. Apparently it’s a Qabbalistic device to ward off negative energy. I wonder how many other MPs protect themselves in this way. “By the Power of the Red String etc etc “.
Perhaps it’s a little insight into how these people are programmed to ignore human suffering to further their particular agenda.
I understand that the red string is actually a Hindu thing.
The wearing of a red string on the wrist seems to be common in many religions. Take your pick for why Sunak wears one:
https://lifestylebyps.com/blogs/lifestyle/the-significance-of-wearing-a-red-string-bracelet-in-many-religions
Cheers both
It’s that time of the month for that c***.
British involvement is not confined to the politicians and military. The UK media is just as complicit. Not only for failing to report British military involvement but for trying to justify British infliction of famine on Gaza while denying there has been any collective punishment in Gaza.
When Labour refused support for the SNP ceasefire motion in February the reason reported was because the motion referred to collective punishment in Gaza. According to the UK media Labour’s refusal was responsible and entirely correct: there has been no collective punishment and for the SNP to suggest otherwise was a gross lie. A blood libel against Israel and Britain.
This was despite a month earlier the same media having reported Britain’s collective punishment of Gaza by withdrawing funding to UNRWA, thereby inflicting a famine that would conceivably kill everyone in Gaza (for crude lies Israel was spreading about some UNRWA employees).
The UK media is not only suppressing British military participation in the genocide. It is presenting Britain’s infliction of famine on Gaza as entirely justified, while simultaneously insisting it in no way constitutes collective punishment!
Why the hell can Baerbock not just simply shut up?
Instead doing this latest stunt:
“German foreign minister says she saw nonexistent 7 Oct. rape video”
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/german-foreign-minister-says-she-saw-nonexistent-7-oct-rape-video
After all there is nothing new here:
“(…)
No sexual violence caught on camera
Since Israel began propagating the 7 October mass rape hoax, at no point has any official Israeli source claimed that a video exists of any rape in progress.
This was confirmed in an article in Haaretz last month.
“From inquiries put to three bodies in the defense establishment by Haaretz, it emerges that the intelligence material collected by the police and the intelligence bodies, including footage from terrorists’ body cameras, does not contain visual documentation of any acts of rape themselves,” the Tel Aviv newspaper stated.
(…)”.
I have to add in this regard public opinion has shifted even here.
She was yelled off stage in the end of her appearance. This 6 months ago would have caused furious hate campaigns by the entire media.
But nothing now. Instead they switch to other topics. Back to Ukraine again and – attention – Rafah.
It strikes me that part of the legal argument needs to be about who Israel claims to be at war with now. They say they are fighting Hamas, or the terrorists responsible for the 7th Oct attacks, but they are attacking and destroying the general population and infrastructure of the Palestinian territories.
If you go to war against an aggressor nation, like Nazi Germany, then the German civilian population and infrastructure are going to be hit. It is collective punishment, but it’s a war against that nation.
But Israel has consistently refused any real nation state for the Palestinians, so they can’t claim to be at war with an entity they refused to allow to exist, and the general Palestinian population can’t be held collectively responsible. That’s before you even start to argue whether or not the Israelis themselves were at least partly responsible for the actions that lead up to the 7th Oct terrorist response by Hamas.
So Israel is fighting a police action, not even a war, against a segment of population in an area that in many ways falls under their own jurisdictional control. It’s more like shelling whole apartment blocks to get at car thieves who are known to live there than any kind of justified conflict. And when those apartment blocks are almost exclusively occupied by a minority who have been routinely persecuted anyway, it becomes genocide and ethnic cleansing pure and simple.
Yes this is a war against the population itself that is why the warfare have obvious collective punishment aspects to it.
After the assault against Gaza by Israel in 2008-2009-war the conclusion by UN investigators was that Israel had carried out, and this is a direct quote from the UN report:
“a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population, radically diminish its local economic capacity both to work and to provide for itself, and to force upon it an ever increasing sense of dependency and vulnerability”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Fact_Finding_Mission_on_the_Gaza_Conflict
Note that the leader of the investigation – Richard Goldstone – is a self-declared zionist jew.
Just like Israel pressure ICJ and ICC they pressured this man to the exten that he took back som accusations against Israel. The other investigators did not.
Colleagues Rebuke Gaza Report’s Author
Three members of the United Nations panel that investigated Israel’s Gaza war two years ago rejected on Thursday an essay written by the fourth, the former chairman Richard Goldstone, in which he retracted the panel’s key conclusions, especially that Israel had deliberately made civilians targets.
The three — Hina Jilani of Pakistan, Desmond Travers of Ireland and Christine Chinkin of Britain — issued a statement to The Guardian in London saying that any attempt to backtrack on their report amounted to yielding to outside pressure, and that doing so would deprive the victims of justice.
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/world/middleeast/15goldstone.html
And as we have seen, it does not matter how many civilians Israel kill so, from their perspective, why should they bother being cautious who they kill comatant or civilian – it does not matter for them. They get away with everything.
Revealed: Israeli spy chief ‘threatened’ ICC prosecutor over war crimes inquiry
Mossad director Yossi Cohen personally involved in secret plot to pressure Fatou Bensouda to drop Palestine investigation, sources say
According to accounts shared with ICC officials, he is alleged to have told her: “You should help us and let us take care of you. You don’t want to be getting into things that could compromise your security or that of your family.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/28/israeli-spy-chief-icc-prosecutor-war-crimes-inquiry
Interestingly Fatou Bensouda turned down inquiries into israeli warcrimes during her term.
Norman Finkelstein wrote a whole book about her duplicitous act.
Norman Finkelstein’s new book indicts the International Criminal Court for whitewashing Israel
https://mondoweiss.net/2020/05/norman-finkelsteins-new-book-indicts-the-international-criminal-court-for-whitewashing-israel/
That multi-page Guardian article has (hopefully) laid bare the Mossad MO (although most intelligent people had guessed it already), which basically boils down to intimidation, threats to family/career, and digging up any dirt which can be used in a full scale blackmail attempt. Basically, a global Kray twins operation; but with state backing, and unlimited finance provided by the USA in the form of ‘military aid’.
Having established this, all we need to do now is discover the precise details of how the blackmail operates for leaders of most Western countries. Maybe we should look no further than Jeffrey Epstein and his Black Book, and passengers on the Lolita Express?
Re: ‘Having established this, all we need to do now is discover the precise details of how the blackmail operates for leaders of most Western countries.’
Things have moved on a bit from Epstein’s hey-day, Jon:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pegasus_(spyware)
The SNP MSP John Mason has lost the plot, or he’s a Shia Masot asset.
“SNP MSP John Mason has claimed the International Criminal Court (ICC) is “biased against Israel””
Mason then goes on to point out just how nice the Zionists are.
https://archive.is/zQTwS#selection-1859.3-1871.295
“Pro-Palestine organisations and human rights campaigners in Scotland including Gaza Genocide Emergency Committee – which Show Israel the Red Card is a part of – and Scottish Friends of Palestine said they were alarmed by Mason’s comments.
Maree Shepherd of Show Israel the Red Card, a campaign calling on Israel to be banned from UEFA and FIFA, said: “I am extremely shocked and concerned that an elected member of the SNP party could openly claim that international institutions such as the ICC are biased.
“To do so greatly hampers the chance of bringing peace and holding to account those guilty of war crimes.
“To also ignore Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine of almost eight decades, its appalling human rights records and its latest horrific military campaign on occupied Palestinians where Gaza has been reduced to rubble and over 36,000 Palestinians have been killed is also deeply alarming.”
“Israel must immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
The Zionist spin is that the final clause qualifies the first clause and thus the offensive need only be stopped if it “inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
The argument then runs that an offensive in Rafah allegedly designed not to do this may go ahead. [I explain the Zionist spin, leaving aside for the moment that it is plain to the entire world that Israel is anyway inflicting exactly those conditions of life on the Palestinians.]
But that is a grammatically impossible interpretation.”
I would be the last person to opine about grammar. I only achieved grade 4 English on my secondary modern certificate. Although this was better than all other subjects that received grade 5.
But we know how unprecise the English language is.
“Israel must immediately halt its military offensive”
Israel is a name given to an area of land. Land is mostly inanimate and not capable of much action.
Maybe they meant to say that the Government of Israel must immediately halt its military offensive”
But what about “must” verb be obliged to; should (expressing necessity). noun something that should not be overlooked or missed. Hardly compelling
” immediately” at once; instantly. or without any intervening time or space. But neither is possible as everything takes a certain amount of time so asking for an impossible task leaves room for objection.
So one can continue to pick the bones out of the statement.
’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
“When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
Maybe this is all just semantics. Personally I am anti-semantics. I hope that does not make me anti-Semite.
Thanks, Craig, for persevering with this. What’s happening in Gaza is appropriately described by the term ‘holocaust’, .i.e.’Great destruction resulting in the extensive loss of life, especially by fire’.
British government defence minister Leo Docherty asked in Parliament how the ICC seeking to arrest Israeli ministers for war crimes will affect “UK military support for Israel”?
Leo Docherty: “It has no bearing. We will make our own judgements about the legality of our actions on our own terms, and we are confident in that legality.”
https://x.com/markcurtis30/status/1795426090619425050
Leo and his mates know what is and is not a war crime, the ICC does not…
“Leo and his mates know what is and is not a war crime, the ICC does not…”
Yes, actually they do, because they’ve commited more war crimes than the ICC, and most nations on the planet, ever has.
It is the ultimate confirmation of the ontological shock I have felt over the past few years. I always thought there were reasonable limits to the corruption and political lies. To use a religious analogy, though I am atheist, it is as if that in the Creation of Adam painting in the Sistine Chapel the paint falls off and God turns out to be Satan. I listened to Jill Stein on her arrest and ‘processing’ when she gave support at a protest in April, after a rally nearby in her bid for the Presidency, against what is happening in Gaza. A 73-year-old Jewish woman who was an MD for 25 years was pushed over by police, zip tied and arrested – charged with assaulting a police officer. What gets called the land of the free has become a fascist police state.
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/4630683-jill-stein-accuses-police-assaulting-washington-university-st-louis-pro-palestinian-protest/
Robert I seem to remember that first contact with Stein, was a police mountain bike being used as a club to force her to the ground.
If this is not a genocide, what is? Since for a genocide, not the whole of population have to be exterminated (as the pro-israelis try to claim constantly). You have the collective punishment, you have the large scale killing of all type of people (from toddlers to pregnant women) the, you have the, if not targeted, systematic indiscriminate killing which is as worse, you have the statements from israeli reps.
Having said that I am sure that ICC will not rule this as a genocide on the basis of some wording in the genocide convention. Such a ruling would be chilling too since that would mean that in future wars another state would have the right to do what Israel just did. Starving, killing civilians, stopping humanitarian aid, targeting every civilian site imaginable. What is the purpose with the law then?
David Cameron has described the accusations made against Israel as ‘nonsense’ and then lying about the legal advice he has been given.
The US government have said the ICJ accusations are ‘meritless’ they even go as far to say in the seven months of the Mass Killings in Gaza, they have not determined a single case of a war crime, but obviously they are monitoring the situation closely.
These liars must/will pay a price for their craven pandering to Israel. One can only hope the electorate remember them both Sunak and Starmer. Just remind supporters of these two creeps that they also have to look in the mirror and a vote for them is a vote for genocide.
Indeed, there must be more, real actual punitive actions against politicians that engage, support, aid and abet in gross human rights violations like this one we see in Gaza. In the best of worlds there would be impeachment after impeachment against Sunak, Starmer and alike.
Just imagine if a citizen aided and abetted a serial killer, that citizen would have commited a crime, but when a Sunak or Starmer aid and abett killing of thousands in Gaza, there are no threat of legal punsihment against them and that is why they keep doing what they are doing.
UK Politicians Face WAR CRIMES Arrests After ICC Warrant Requests – w/. Tayab Ali. Owen Jones in this interview with Tayab Ali who is going to prosecute many UK politicians, here he explains.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ty78Ixmi8c8
Credit where credit is due. This is good, important investigative journalism:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/28/spying-hacking-intimidation-israel-war-icc-exposed
Have you noticed how the MSM, especially BBC, haven’t even reported it? Were this Russia threatening ICC prosecutors, the online pro-Ukraine voices would be all over it, as would the BBC, would they not? If this kind of intimidation is hard to withstand for chief prosecutors, what hope do lowly ministers and politicians stand? Of course, the idea of puppet masters is an anti-Semitic trope. But what other description can be applied to this kind of, ‘do as we say, or else’ intimidation?
In this world, it’s clearly not about your talents and how good you are, but simply how ruthless you are prepared to be. The country that is prepared to go further, doing the darkest deeds wins, e.g. directly threatening officials’ family members etc. I doubt the Israelis would try this on with say, Russia or China – they can hurt them back, in a tit-for-tat political assassination war. But smaller countries, countries with less developed intel apparatus, they don’t stand a chance against this gangster-ism.
It casts the recent threats against Spain, Ireland and Norway in a different light. And ultimately, the US and UK must know about this kind of behaviour too as the CIA and Mi6 are virtually in bed with Mossad. Indeed, they themselves have been accused regarding the OPCW of similar behaviour, in determined efforts to frame Assad and Russia. The claim to be representing some higher moral ‘rules-based’ international order are a complete sham.
thx!
p.s. most obvious being Bolton´s direct threat against the then OPCW chief
The fact that Bensouda do not want to talk about the claims seems to point that the threat from Israel is still there.
According to accounts shared with ICC officials, Cohen allegedly told the ICC prosecutor: “You should help us and let us take care of you. You don’t want to be getting into things that could compromise your security or that of your family.”
How low could you get acting like the mob??
“Israel is offended by everything and ashamed of nothing” sums up the corrupt nature of Israel.
General question: should we open a thread on Georgia in the forum or post under Ukraine?
Any suggestions?
The Zio-monsters did it again, they will not be dissuaded from completing their ethnic cleansing of Gaza, meanwhile the supposedly civilized West twirls its thumbs and pontificates at how bad the genocide is, well most of them are, some are aiding and abetting in the genocide.
“The Israeli regime has carried out another attack on a tented camp in Rafah, killing at least 21 displaced Palestinians.
The city is still reeling from the horrifying massacre of May 26 that fueled global outrage.
Gaza health authorities said the strike on an evacuation area west of Rafah killed at least 21 people on Tuesday.
At least 12 of the dead were women, according to medical officials.
Meanwhile, the regime’s tanks and armored vehicles reached the heart of Rafah, according to witnesses.
Locals said Israel’s tanks were “stationed on the Al-Awda roundabout in the center of the city of Rafah.”
A Palestinian security source confirmed tanks were in the center of Rafah — a city deemed a “safe zone” for displaced Palestinians to flee to when the regime started its barbarous campaign in early October.”
The Mossad Zionists have previously threatened ICJ prosecutors, no doubt this has happened again.
“Former chief of the Israeli Mossad spy agency Yossi Cohen has “threatened” Fatou Bensouda, a chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), over a 2021 war crimes probe, pressuring her to drop the case, a report says.
In a report on Tuesday, The Guardian said that Cohen engaged in “threats and intimidation” in a series of secret meetings with Bensouda, pressuring her into abandoning a war crimes investigation against the leaders of the occupying regime.
The investigation culminated last week when Bensouda’s successor, Karim Khan, announced that he was seeking an arrest warrant for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his minister for military affairs Yoav Gallant over the regime’s brutal war in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Khan said he had “reasonable grounds” to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant bear “criminal responsibility” for “war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
According to the British daily newspaper, Cohen covert contacts with Bensouda took place between 2017 and 2021, when the then chief ICC prosecutor finally launched the probe into war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Tel Aviv regime.
Citing unnamed Israeli and ICC officials, the report added that Cohen, who served as the chief of Mossad from 2016 to 2021, had frequent and increasingly threatening communications with Bensouda during the said years that amounted to “stalking.”
Israeli sources told The Guardian that Cohen was allegedly approved “at a high level” to act as Netanyahu’s “unofficial messenger” trying to compromise Bensouda or get her to comply with Tel Aviv’s demands.
“You should help us and let us take care of you. You don’t want to be getting into things that could compromise your security or that of your family,” Cohen had allegedly told Bensouda, according to sources.”
I find the meaning very clear: “Israel must immediately halt … any … action in the Rafah Governorate… which MAY inflict on the Palestinian group… conditions… that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”. [Emphasis added to ‘may’.]
But then knowing what a bunch of blatant hypocrites* many Israelis are, I trust them as much as Labour and the Tories.
(* The Israeli state was founded off the back of Zionist terrorism by the Lehi, Irgun and Haganah. For years Israeli leaders were ex-members of these groups.)
Nikki Hailey in Israel signing artillery shells ‘Finish them’ America loves Israel.
Imagine the type of mentality this woman must have, to sign an artillery shell she knows is going to be fired at Civilians.
The level of disgust I feel for an act like this, is not describable in words.
Israel is committing genocide.
And the US is complicit. see picture here
https://halturnerradioshow.com/index.php/news-selections/world-news/disgusting.
Doubly bizarre, as she’s the daughter of poor Indian immigrants, she was born Nimarata Nikki Randhawa.
Our own Hindu PM’s callous disregard for Gazan suffering alludes to similar attitudes. Not that the opposition leader is any better. He clearly sold his soul a long time ago. Had this whole Gaza war and subsequent ICC and ICJ interventions not occurred, Starmer’s first overseas visit, post-election, would’ve likely been to Israel.
Serious talk about Starmer making Ruth Smeeth, now titled The Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent, if not the Secretary of State for Defence then a junior defence minister. She’s a former director of public affairs and campaigns at pro-Israel group the British Israel Communications and Research Centre (Bicom). She also had the ‘special protect’ source designation – usually reserved for valued assets – in the leaked diplomatic cables. Why would UK intel want anyone like her sniffing around the MoD?
I should think that Sunak’s religious affiliation is little more than an affectation, same as any other rich bastard.
I disagree that presence or absence of a comma is indicative of the relationship between non-adjacent clauses. Commas serve merely to separate clauses in aid of readability, including by indicating whether a word is associated with the preceding word or the following one.
Where there is material ambiguity, as alleged for the example, it should be remediated by inclusion of something like “both”, in one case, or like “the latter”, in the other.
In the ICJ statement, the combination of “which” with the middle clause’s “any” suggests that the third clause is a qualifier of the second, though, as others have noted, “that” would be subtly more correct than “which”.
The first clause, on the other hand, refers to something quite definite, “[Israel’s (meaning the Israeli regime’s)] military offensive”. Were we to associate the third clause with this, it could only be inconsequential description (i.e. not a qualification), or a rationale for the imperative, in neither case introducing any conditionality.
The common-sense interpretation is that the second and third clauses are associated to establish what manners of “other action” must be halted (and, presumably, also not initiated).
I have seen something similar in respect of the Second Amendment, with some people arguing that their contention, of the establishment of a federal army having been adequate to ensure “the security of a free State”, deactivates “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms”. They, too, fully merit the scorn Kipling expressed.
“Club Anthem for Doomed Youth” – AI-generated music video (TikTok, 2m 32s)
https://www.tiktok.com/@rodef_shalom/video/7365378754534706464
The ICJ should have spelled this out in a way not open to ‘interpretations’. The world is full of native and non-native speakers of English who cannot distinguish between defining and non-defining relative pronouns or clauses. A comma followed by ‘which’ means that the clause does not define the previous statements, but adds information. Here, it means that the attacks must stop since they may lead to the destruction of the inhabitants of Gaza.
If the ICJ had not used a comma and ‘that’ instead of ‘which’, it would have meant that only attacks that threaten the existence of people in Gaza would have had to be stopped.
[ Mod: Caught in spam filter. ]
Yes, you wouldn’t say, “Israel must immediately halt its military offensive…” if it was going to be qualified by “which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”. Why? Because there’s only ONE military offensive taking place.
Instead, you’d say: “Israel must immediately halt ANY military ACTIONS…which…” – as there can be many different types of military actions as part of an offensive and the “which” qualifies which ones you’re talking about.
It is deliberate, they want to play both sides, sitting on the fence really.
I believe ICJ and ICC engage in public diplomacy/PR now, they want on the one hand try to frame themselves as objective and not afraid of targeting western/allies, on the other hand they are not clearcut in what they are saying which in the end benefit Israel/western stance.
Same with ICJ earlier when they claimed that Israel might be involved in genocidal act but stopped short calling for a ceasefire. If someone might be engaged in genocide, why would not you at least call for a ceasefire? Makes no sense!
There’s some early reports of protestors setting fire to the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul:
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videos/toi-original/rafah-massacre-sparks-protests-outside-israeli-consulate-in-turkeys-istanbul-watch/videoshow/110505528.cms
https://en.irna.ir/news/85491639/Istanbul-protesters-set-fire-to-vicinity-of-Israeli-consulate
https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2024/05/protests-against-israel-spread-turkey-following-rafah-strike
(It is hard to verify though, as separate from manufactured propaganda, some websites will copy+paste from each other anyway).
I see thank new fronts are being opened up. The peoples are rising. It’s almost as if that is what is planned! Smoke to hide the fire starters as the villains run away and shift shape. Something like that.
This for instance :
‘S.L. Kanthan
@Kanthan2030
China-Arab Forum this week.
Presidents/King of Egypt, UAE, Bahrain and Tunisia will be coming to a summit in Beijing and will be meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
No plans for wars or chaos. Just long-term plans for trade, infrastructure and economic growth.’
Yup. That’s right. ‘no plans’. Just guarantees of the chaos already underway not being stopped in time to engulf them.
Raisi and Irans FM’s surprise demise, hasn’t stopped the action, not even by a beat. If that doesn’t prove and scare the sand dwellers that they are on the wrong side .. well they can watch their improbable glass cities and castles, dissolve back to the sands they are built of.
And incase they the Arab Satstraps don’t get it , here’s a warning from us in the audience – BEHIND YOU!
‘🇷🇺🇸🇩 The Sudanese army seeks to obtain weapons from Russia and Iran
– The Sudanese army said that it is ready, in exchange for obtaining Russian weapons, to give Moscow permission to open a maritime logistics center on the Red Sea coast.
– The relevant documents have already been signed
@MyLordBebo | Boost us! | X ‘
I expect they will be tasked to either solve the illegal apartheid entity imperial colonists Zionazis they have allowed to take control of the MENA and save and restore Palestine or, they will hang alongside the shapeshifter pirates and murderers of the smouldering Collective Waste. Swiss bullshit and most European A,B,C, Russia must accept defeat ..wah, wah, wah … childish crap must end. Hungary is on the right side of that. Being in the front line, had refused to play that losing game. Go the Magjhars!
Aahhhhh…I love the smell of burning empire in the morning.
Wonder if this utterly disgusting behaviour can be topped:
“Nikki Haley Visits Israel, Writes ‘Finish Them’ on Israeli Artillery Shell”
(see the image)
https://news.antiwar.com/2024/05/28/nikki-haley-visits-israel-writes-finish-them-on-israeli-artillery-shell/
and this in Paris:
“French Hard-Left MP Suspended for Waving Palestinian Flag in Parliament”
https://archive.is/jJSn7
p.s. the word “Hard-Left” betrays US. News as source
Donald Trump said of Nikki Haley last week, “I think she’s going to be on our team because we have a lot of the same ideas, the same thoughts.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-says-nikki-haley-is-going-to-be-on-our-team-in-some-form/
Taking on the Neo Cons/ Deep State, pt II.
I am really glad to hear that! What a relief…imagine the administration WITHOUT NIKKI!
Donald Trump supports Israel. If I remember correctly, it was he who moved the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Trump married his daughter Ivanka to Jared Kushner, his then adviser and supervisor of US-Israel relations, who has longstanding personal links and family ties with Netanyahu.
Mr. Kushner was raised in an Orthodox Jewish family and is himself an Orthodox Jew who practices Modern Orthodox Judaism, which means Religious Zionism.
Trump’s daughter adopted her husband’s religion, and their children are being raised in the same religion.
I think Trump supports this genocide.
These people are idiots and maniacs.
You just have to think of the reactions of an Eli Lake when he was discussing with Norman Finkelstein (an embarassing show of incompetence) past fall. And these are the same just a mio. times more dangerous and powerful and more malignant.
In fact this entire NYC-Zionist lot has always been a genocidal milieu.
That´s why the protest of their kids presumably hits ´em so hard now.
It would be interesting to witness the kitchen arguments taking place in those NYC, Long Island households where parents have paid hundreds of thousands to pay for tuition (not that they couldn´t afford it) and now their children thank them by being suspended or worse.
Since both sides believe in their views. It´s a bit like Vietnam all over again.
Of course Trumpet and Co. are beyond that. They give a dime about anyone.
Those people should live on the moon where they can´t fuck up things.
(Remember the end of “Spaceballs”? When the baddies crash-land on the Planet of the Apes? Now that´s Trump/Kushner crash-landing.)
(not the best moment of the movie but to illustrate the idea:)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD516OENN7s
AG, Yup it can be topped – add Analanna, the Green Meanie zionazi Russophobe , one of the stable of night mares who have been deployed across the Collective Waste over recent decades to subdue the world with ‘feminine’ leadership that would ‘end all wars’ because you know, they were ‘born women’.
‘ Ali Abunimah
@AliAbunimah
May 27
🚨Deadly lies: Desperate to justify their support for Israel’s genocide, Western officials resort to fabrications. Here, German foreign minister @ABaerbock claims she saw Hamas video of an Israeli woman “being raped on camera.” But no such video exists. electronicintifada.net/blogs… ‘
Watching. it seems she makes up that complete lie on the fly, as she tried to justify the continued extermination of Palestinians. Her crocodile tears plea of ‘why are you interrupting me – a woman – with such trivia when I am speaking of a woman being raped’ implying herself being an equivalent victim too by the fact of the protestor not shutting up protesting! Her whole body language and cold dead eyes shows she is not just a mere actor like shelenski but a cold blooded director of the horrors.
In a normal world she’d have resigned or been fired already.
Oh, come friendly justice of Nuremberg trials! There are Nazis to lifted by their own petards.
I had forgotten about that one (Too much new shit every day to deal with.) But ALB is so dumb when its´not about manipulating party friends and members into promoting her – that I really think she in fact believes this crap.
You have to realize this particular issue with the rapes etc. is still considered truth by German media.
If you were doing a survey among senior editors of Germany´s major papers and TV-stations on this I am pretty sure the results would be horrifying.
It´s funny somehow how the fake image of one of the two most benign states in the world – Germany & Israel – has totally fallen apart since Oct. Benign for different reasons though – one benign without an army to speak of, the other for having the coolest army in the world, dancing and singing and handing out candy to kids and shooting pink bubbles instead of missiles.
Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise is fairly hard-left. Mélenchon himself has turned up to speak at the Gaza rallies in Paris, the only well-known politician to do so. I’m sure the député didn’t mind being suspended. He got his protest in, videoed on all the news channels.
Israel must immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
“must” verb: be obliged to; should (expressing necessity). noun: something that should not be overlooked or missed. Hardly compelling
But the must is no good without an else
You can say: You must obey the speed limit – but the full and proper statement is:
You must obey the speed limit or else if you are caught speeding you will be punished by a fine and points or possibly charged with dangerous driving.
The must without the else is meaningless. There needs to be some implied threat or compelling reason to obey.
The problem is what meaningful implied threat can be made against the Israel government.
It feels, probably correctly, it can act with impunity.
But even if the threat is hollow it should have at least been made.
Something along the lines of:
The Israel government must immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, otherwise we will insist that all military aid and other strict economic sanctions be imposed.
Bluff and bluster but if you have an empty hand you sometimes need to bluff.
“The Geneva International Peace Research Institute calls the [ICC] Prosecutor to initiate investigations (…) against Mrs. Ursula von der Leyen.”
It would be really cool if ICC accepted the case and would end up with a guilty verdict.
Since that´s the minimum she has deserved with the Pfizer scandal investigation pushed backed into December and possibly dissolving.
It they dare intimidate us lets intimidate back.
If they want street rules they should bear the consequences. Assholes. Don´t understand anything but violence and fear.
“A communication submitted by GIPRI on 22 May details “through facts and evidence, that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the current president of the European Commission … is complicit in a number of violations of international humanitarian law, amounting to crimes within the jurisdiction of the ICC, committed by the Israeli armed forces against Palestinian civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), including the Gaza Strip.”
“This communication, endorsed by various human rights groups and prominent academics and experts in international criminal law, calls the [ICC] Prosecutor to initiate investigations on the basis of the information provided against Mrs. Ursula von der Leyen,” the communication adds.
GIPRI notes that Von der Leyen is complicit in violations of articles 6, 7, and 8 of the ICC Rome Statute, including military, economic, diplomatic, and political support to Israel.”
https://scheerpost.com/2024/05/28/top-eu-official-accused-at-icc-of-complicity-in-gaza-genocide/
I think what happened in Rafah is technically called Holocaust
Many more people were vaporized by the thermobaric explosions, here you can look for your self the size and effect of the fire ball and get a more clear view and Idea of what really took place.
https://substack.com/@1sol1x/note/c-57485984
Al Jazeera news now reporting that ALL hospitals in Rafah are now out of commission.
The Zionist won’t stop until either every Palestinian in Gaza is dead, or forced out, and no Western country is willing to confront them on their evil quest of ethic cleansing.
Israel is trying to eliminate the next generation they are beheading babies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBCO2MCb7L0
I have been following Murad because he believes something has happened to Princess Kate and he doesn’t often post anything about Palestine.
I have heard some incredible rumours, of fantastic substance – too extreme to repeat but there does seem to be an issue with her presence or lack of it
Smotrich has declared multiple times that he intends that every Palestinian should be exterminated. Check reports on Google. They have now stated that the hostages will not be rescued either. No witnesses. No survivors. Do you think it might still be possible to offer safe passage to countries willing to welcome Palestinian citizens? Egypt cannot offer to take them all, and anyway the IDF has now control of the entire border with Israel. Would the pro Israel zionists even consider such a compassionate alternative? Leave Palestine and join the diaspora around the world? I cannot see any other possible chance of saving the lives of any of the citizens of the former British Protectorate of Palestine